A number of U.S. patents have described plunger or piston-shaped objects designed to be propelled along the interior of pipelines or similar conduits. These include such U.S. Pat. Nos. as 4,416,703, 4,413,370, 4,365,379, 4,275,475, and 4,173,806. In addition, a large number of United States patents describe methods and apparatus for separating heat transfer tube cleaning plugs or balls from the cooling water stream by such means as centrifugal separators, screens, sieves and the like, including such U.S. Pat. Nos. as 4,435,285, 4,385,660, 4,350,202, 3,882,931, and 4,351,387.
None of these prior art patents discloses, suggests or foreshadows the methods and apparatus of the present invention for conveniently separating the cleaning plugs from the outlet stream of cooling water, washing the plugs and recycling them by delivering them into the intake cooling water stream for reuse.
Accordingly, the principal object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus for cleaning and recycling power plant heat exchanger cleaning plugs for repeated use.
Another object of the invention is to provide such methods and apparatus employing the normal current flow of an adjacent body of water for convenient and economical separation of the used cooling plugs and their delivery to a cleaning station.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such methods and apparatus employing a washing spray station for cleaning of the cleaning plugs with the accumulated debris being carried away by the normal current flow of the adjacent body of water.
A further object of the invention is to provide such methods and apparatus employing a buoyant floating assembly for separation, washing and recovery of the floating cleaning plugs, incorporating a containment boom embracing a portion of the surface of the adjacent body of water with a downstream converging weir to guide the buoyant cleaning plugs into the entrance to a conveyor, carrying them to a washing zone still further downstream, where debris removed from the cleaning plugs in a washing operation is carried away downstream while the clean plugs are recovered and recycled.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the constructions hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.